Mild tremor felt in parts of Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD: A mild intensity earthquake with a magnitude of 3.8 on the Richter Scale jolted parts of Andhra Pradesh today.

"It was a 3.8 magnitude earthquake and its epicentre was 20 km west of Narasaraopet in Andhra Pradesh or 25 km east of Nagarjuna Sagar reservoir," CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) chief scientist R K Chadha told PTI.

The tremor were felt for some seconds in the districts of Prakasam, Nalgonda, Guntur, Khammam and Krishna at around 11 AM, Chadha said.

There were no immediate report of any casualty. "This kind of moderate earthquake in the Indian Peninsular Shield can go up to magnitude of 5," he said.

"Now we are passing through a seismically active period globally. Throughout the world we are seeing an increase in earthquakes of magnitude of 8.5 and above. Clustering of large earthquake is happening at global scale," Chadha said.

"When you are in a seismically active period globally you will also observe an increase in smaller magnitude earthquake activity," he added.